The 9th Symphony in D Minor, op. 125, premiered in 1824, is the last completed symphony by the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. In the final movement of the symphony, a mixed choir is used in addition to the orchestra. Beethoven chose the poem To the Joy by Friedrich Schiller as text. In 1972 the main theme of the last sentence was declared his anthem by the Council of Europe and in 1985 the European Community adopted it as the official European anthem.
Until 1952, Beethoven's Ode to Joy was often used as a replacement West German national anthem on official occasions because there was no official national anthem. Beethoven's original score has been stored in the Old Library in Berlin since 1901. During the Second World War, the library attempted to protect its holdings from being destroyed by war. From 1941, the autograph was outsourced in three parts to places that appeared safe. A part was initially kept in Silesia and thus came into Polish possession after the end of the war in Kraków. Another part was stored in East Berlin in the German State Library. The third part went to the Beuron Monastery on the Danube. Only after the German reunification were the three parts of the autograph of the 9th symphony reunited in the Berlin State Library.
Robert Kuckertz created a new symphonic work suitable for wind orchestra from the well-known themes of the last movement of the symphony.
Optionally, a mixed choir can be used for the arrangement. Then there is an astonishing and unexpected effect: the choir sings the text of the German national anthem on the melody of the European anthem and only in the recapitulation to the finale does Friedrich Schiller's original text follow: "Pleasure of beautiful gods ..."
